grindz145 wrote:I'm in Crete Nebraska right now. It has been a grueling few days. Today I got soaked early on which reduced me to 600w charge . Still made 130 miles.

Working backwards last night I hung out at random dive in Avoca ia which was a total blast. My hike was charging out front and as it turned out there was a campsite right down the road.

The day before was awesome. After a 190 mile day I got to Jerrys place. Holy shit it is amazing. A full machine shop. He hooked me up big time.

I get some more updates soon but time is hard. I just every minute of the day. A tell it's been hard even to bang out a quick update. I'll try to do short ones from my phone.

Troy, you are making PHENOMENAL time, and even short little updates are fantastic. We can see that you stopped in Sutton, NE for lunch and a charge-up. We hope all's going OK as you approach the Colorado state line! You are inspiring the crap out of me!

veloman wrote:Watching your videos, it looks like traffic is very little, especially out on those farm roads. How has traffic been for you? It is my #1 concern, and why I have been hesitant to do a XC ebike trip. I just hate the feeling of being on a narrow road with a car flying up behind me at 50-70mph. All the roads I've seen here in TX are like that. Mostly narrow and high speeds. I know the North East has a more generous shoulder and lower speeds (not as straight/open), I grew up in CT road biking.

Traffic has been surprisingly good. People in the Midwest seem to give you a bit more space and the shoulders have been pretty good for the most part.

Just got woken up by the sprinkler system soaking my tent, my bike, and me once I decided to leave the tent in sleepened stupor.

grindz145 wrote:
Just got woken up by the sprinkler system soaking my tent, my bike, and me once I decided to leave the tent in sleepened stupor.

That exact same thing happened to me on a cross country hiking trip. Now I scan the ground for sprinkler heads when I sleep in parks

Are you planning your first electric bicycle conversion? I wrote a book that teaches beginners everything they need to know about building their own ebike.
Then I wrote the book (literally) on building custom lithium batteries.
I also write for EbikeSchool.com, a site that does mainly how-to style articles and other informational write-ups. Check out our youtube channel for great how-to battery building videos.
Lastly, I run www.Vruzend.com, which sells solderless 18650 battery kits, 18650 cells, li-ion chargers, BMSs and more!

Troy - work this week is such that I'm able to check in on you fairly often. I'm rooting for you man, rooting big time. You rolled out EARLY again today and are doing great man!

If you are a beer and ale guy, don't leave Colorado without having an Avery product - their "Maharaja IPA" is held in very high regard. Fingers crossed you can hang with some of the E-S faithful there in Colo and get some good times in!

dogman wrote:My personal best mileage for one year was 3000 and change. Last year I logged 2000 miles, not counting dirt riding.

4500 miles in one month, that would be a record nobody will beat for a long time.

I should hit 4,000 this weekend if the weather is ok. That is since putting the bike together in March. I'm really loving this trip he is doing. Only did about 600 last year. I feel awesome. Legs are the best they have ever been. I'm a singer / songwriter so part of my daily ride is singing in full voice while I'm pushing the bike as hard as I can. Needless to say my lung capacity has shot up. My life is going to be quite extended health wise thanks to ebiking (and Medical cannabis, but that's not for this thread hehe).

I will be doing some longer trips towards the end of the summer, just haven't decided where yet. Probably will be only 300 or 400 miles though.

anybody else getting withdrawls when he doesn't post his GPS in a while?

Are you planning your first electric bicycle conversion? I wrote a book that teaches beginners everything they need to know about building their own ebike.
Then I wrote the book (literally) on building custom lithium batteries.
I also write for EbikeSchool.com, a site that does mainly how-to style articles and other informational write-ups. Check out our youtube channel for great how-to battery building videos.
Lastly, I run www.Vruzend.com, which sells solderless 18650 battery kits, 18650 cells, li-ion chargers, BMSs and more!

mlt34 wrote:anybody else getting withdrawls when he doesn't post his GPS in a while?

Yes, me too, something fierce! I've been checking and checking and checking this afternoon. I guess he's in Denver and I hope all's well - I hope after all the stuff that boy's been through, that he gets hot showers, cold beer and warm conversation in Denver!

So glad that you are in Denver! That’s amazing progress, was having so much fun watching your travels on glympse then switching to street view so I could get a feel for where you are, it all looks so similar! Really straight roads, fields either side and little 1 horse towns, Denver must feel like quite a metropolis after all that time out in nowhereresville?

You seem to be having great reliability from that bike too (touching lots of wood) long may that continue!! I am assuming that more of a test lies in wait for you and the bike on the next leg of the trip past Denver? I would be interested to know which route that you are planning on going, been looking at the map myself, whichever way you go it’s hard to avoid, desert and hills! Oh and the sun, id ditch the helmet and get a sombrero! He he.

Hope you can post up your glympse status on twitter today, I have split monitors here at work, one on you and one on my work

Is that going to be a problem for Guinness when it comes time to validate your record?

knoxie wrote: was having so much fun watching your travels on glympse then switching to street view so I could get a feel for where you are

I love doing that! I keep switching to street view and thinking "cool, I could do that!"
though some of those narrow roads with no shoulder seem a bit worrisome. I scoot along the road looking for a speed limit sign, then see it's 55 mph and I imagine getting passed by a pickup doing 65!

knoxie wrote:I would be interested to know which route that you are planning on going, been looking at the map myself, whichever way you go it’s hard to avoid, desert and hills!

ditto I'm curious too. I've been sort of planning my own trip in my head and I'm thinking Florida to LA and back, hugging the southern border pretty well to avoid the rockies. Only problem is the really southern desert southwest seems like it can be just hundreds of miles of sand between civilization. Not somewhere I'd want to breakdown...

Are you planning your first electric bicycle conversion? I wrote a book that teaches beginners everything they need to know about building their own ebike.
Then I wrote the book (literally) on building custom lithium batteries.
I also write for EbikeSchool.com, a site that does mainly how-to style articles and other informational write-ups. Check out our youtube channel for great how-to battery building videos.
Lastly, I run www.Vruzend.com, which sells solderless 18650 battery kits, 18650 cells, li-ion chargers, BMSs and more!

Is that going to be a problem for Guinness when it comes time to validate your record?

No just because I have a separate GPS logger for the Guinness stuff, on top of my normal phone stuff.

mlt34 wrote:
ditto I'm curious too. I've been sort of planning my own trip in my head and I'm thinking Florida to LA and back, hugging the southern border pretty well to avoid the rockies. Only problem is the really southern desert southwest seems like it can be just hundreds of miles of sand between civilization. Not somewhere I'd want to breakdown...

I have mentioned it before, but I think Denver will probably be my turning around point. I'm at close to 2000 miles now, so it won't be hard to get up to 4500 on the way back. It's a hard decision to make, but it's going to be nearly impossible to make it back in time if I don't I should change the map on the first page to reflect this, but honestly, I still don't know exactly what the plan is

grindz145 wrote:
I have mentioned it before, but I think Denver will probably be my turning around point. I'm at close to 2000 miles now, so it won't be hard to get up to 4500 on the way back. It's a hard decision to make, but it's going to be nearly impossible to make it back in time if I don't I should change the map on the first page to reflect this, but honestly, I still don't know exactly what the plan is

Dang man, bummer about having to turn back. I'd get a huge kick seeing you dip the front wheel into the Pacific, then turn and ride like hell back to the east. You made some fantastic time on the last three-or-so days of riding - it would be great if you were able to keep that pace up the entire way back.

You have a point about time. Tomorrow marks exactly halfway through August, and how much safety margin that gives you for doing the ride in the month of August, you won't know until you get into it.

grindz145 wrote:
I have mentioned it before, but I think Denver will probably be my turning around point. I'm at close to 2000 miles now, so it won't be hard to get up to 4500 on the way back. It's a hard decision to make, but it's going to be nearly impossible to make it back in time if I don't I should change the map on the first page to reflect this, but honestly, I still don't know exactly what the plan is

Dang man, bummer about having to turn back. I'd get a huge kick seeing you dip the front wheel into the Pacific, then turn and ride like hell back to the east. You made some fantastic time on the last three-or-so days of riding - it would be great if you were able to keep that pace up the entire way back.

You have a point about time. Tomorrow marks exactly halfway through August, and how much safety margin that gives you for doing the ride in the month of August, you won't know until you get into it.

Are you taking the same path backward to get home?

I am am definitely taking a different way home. I want to your the entire midwest/southern us on this trip. It would completely kill my energy budget if I had to fly everything home. I want to inspire people to take their ebikes everywhere and not just use them for recreation. For whatever reason my laurels dictate that I should get back home the same way that I arrived. That's exciting to me and I hope that a few other people identify with that too.

In sitting in Boulder right now having a Coffee and considering that I am going to turn back east. It's hard in many ways it will continue to be amazing I'm sure but to be honest the cadence that I have to maintain is brutal and

I'm totally with you on making it back home on the bike, no assistance needed if at all possible. You are proving that simple ebike technology works great for transportation, and not just 5 mile trips in town.

If you want to come towards Austin, there is a free guest bedroom/shower/food at my place for you. Today wasn't too bad, but it get's pretty hot here in August, to warn you. 105 for consecutive days is normal. Lots of sun too. Makes you want to make a shade roof or sombrero like you mentioned

grindz145 wrote:If anyone has a recommendation for route I would appreciate it.

i highly recommend getting over the front range and then going down to santa fe. the change in rockies from evergreen to desert is amazing. and i can recommend some hot springs along the way.
then shoot on home. something like this.

happy bday, by the way. was it a couple days ago? thought i noticed that on fb.

In your videos you're complaining about being tired... a lot. I know you've only got day 6 uploaded, but how have you altered your daily routine to manage the fatigue? Did you just power through it, or are you still dealing with it? It has been very entertaining to watch your videos, very inspiring.

grindz145 wrote:If anyone has a recommendation for route I would appreciate it.

i highly recommend getting over the front range and then going down to santa fe. the change in rockies from evergreen to desert is amazing. and i can recommend some hot springs along the way.
then shoot on home. something like this.

happy bday, by the way. was it a couple days ago? thought i noticed that on fb.